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A review by bookishwendy
Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley
4.0
The irreverent Mr. Buckley, having already thoroughly mocked lobbyists supporting cigarettes, guns and alcohol in Thank You for Smoking, turns to a subject somewhat less tapped for slapstick and satire: the Middle East.
Assistant to the assistant to the deputy of Middle Eastern Affairs, Florence Farfaletti accidentally gets mixed up in the execution of the wife of a (fictional) Middle Eastern diplomat. She is then volunteered for subsequent covert operation to bring woman's rights to the most misogynistic corner of the planet via a woman's Arabic TV station. This is a station where anchorwomen in abayas trip over things on screen because they can't see past a one degree angle of incident. The true life consequences of what will happen to the aforementioned abaya'd women who urge their audiences to mail-order books on woman's rights "packaged for your privacy and protection" are not particularly humorous, and Buckley is realistic enough to recognize this. Actually, "Wasabi" regime's reaction to the woman's movement is pretty bloody, and soon Florence is watching the outspoken women around her get arrested, stoned and beaten to death...
This book surprised me in both its hilarity and its brutality, reminding me that even though it is satire, it still rings plausible with respect to the state of woman's rights in the Middle East today. I did enjoy Buckley's faux-political history lessons (like "Let's Put Iraq Here and Jordan Over Here: Drawing Borders in the Middle East"), but the "love story" element did not quite work for me--gratuitous, unemotional sex. Overall, worthwhile for the snappy commentary, but not without its flaws.
Assistant to the assistant to the deputy of Middle Eastern Affairs, Florence Farfaletti accidentally gets mixed up in the execution of the wife of a (fictional) Middle Eastern diplomat. She is then volunteered for subsequent covert operation to bring woman's rights to the most misogynistic corner of the planet via a woman's Arabic TV station. This is a station where anchorwomen in abayas trip over things on screen because they can't see past a one degree angle of incident. The true life consequences of what will happen to the aforementioned abaya'd women who urge their audiences to mail-order books on woman's rights "packaged for your privacy and protection" are not particularly humorous, and Buckley is realistic enough to recognize this. Actually, "Wasabi" regime's reaction to the woman's movement is pretty bloody, and soon Florence is watching the outspoken women around her get arrested, stoned and beaten to death...
This book surprised me in both its hilarity and its brutality, reminding me that even though it is satire, it still rings plausible with respect to the state of woman's rights in the Middle East today. I did enjoy Buckley's faux-political history lessons (like "Let's Put Iraq Here and Jordan Over Here: Drawing Borders in the Middle East"), but the "love story" element did not quite work for me--gratuitous, unemotional sex. Overall, worthwhile for the snappy commentary, but not without its flaws.